::Berthold::

[maniacalmeep02]

BERTHOLD

General Age: In the neighbourhood of 3000 human years Date of Birth: Unknown. Demons measure time differently, and don’t tend to celebrate birthdays anyway. Gender: male Species: corporis demon/common raven Dimension: Angels and Demons Appearance Link In the most frequent of his two main forms, Berthold is a small-ish, but fairly standard common raven. The only thing that really makes him stand out from other birds in this form is perhaps his size, (although that’s only immediately evident when he’s placed next to other birds) and the fact that the right side of his face is badly scarred, his right eye is missing entirely, and beak has a noticeable chip missing on the right side. His remaining eye is also faintly tinted green, but this is hard to notice. His humanoid form is much more unusual. As a normal demon, Berthold had always been on the smaller side, with a thin, waifish build, and a well-built, delicate face. He also had small, curved horns, smallish, but fairly average leathery demonic wings, and pale violet skin. The curse has altered this significantly, of course, almost giving him the appearance of having ‘fused’ with a bird. His face has been twisted almost unrecognizably, making his nose long and beak-like, along with the significant scarring over his right eye that never really healed properly and appears painful and a little swollen. The passing of time has also given him a small scruff of beard on his face and neck, though that’s partially hidden by the black feathers that had mostly covered his pale pink hair and crept down his jaw towards his chin. They’ve also formed a thick plumage around the back and sides of his neck, over his shoulders, and covering his chest. More feathers extend down the outer sides of his arms, growing longer on his forearms, flaring out around his wrists, and spreading down the backs of his hands. He also has long black claws on the end of each finger, and his feet are two-toed, bird-like talons. The skin around his claws is gray and textured with thick black calluses that crawl most of the way up his shins, and down his fingers to the knuckle. His wings have also become bird-like, being thickly plumed with more shiny black feathers. He is still wearing what remains of the suit he had been wearing on his graduation night, though the long black waistcoat has had its sleeves ripped wide open along the seams, and the sleeves of the shirt underneath have been torn completely off near the shoulder. The satiny inner lining of the coat has been mostly torn off near his waist as well, leaving the black outer fabric to hang like a fan tail. His neck feathers seem to explode out from the collar of his coat, and a single gold button remains to hold it closed over his chest. There isn’t much left of his pants, either. They are threadbare and dirty, and the left leg has been almost completely torn off below the knee. Personality Berthold has always been naturally soft-spoken and thoughtful, and when calm, he still is. Perhaps a little more so currently, although his apparent distrust is truthfully more geared towards himself. And with good reason; if under too much mental or emotional stress, Berthold becomes somewhat feral and unthinking, reverting back to the personality of a wild bird of prey. Although this state of mind tends to last maybe a few hours at worst, coming down from or building up to it, he tends to be wildly, almost dangerously erratic and scatter-brained; unpredictable, though very rarely malicious. Even while calm, the split nature of his personality has made him forgetful, anxiously fidgety, and easily-distracted. Spending time around other civilized people who can speak rationally to him in languages he understands can help keep him civil himself, so he prefers to stay near them when he can, even despite his fear that he’ll hurt someone. Likes Despite initial, understandable reservations, he’s grown to enjoy nature and being outdoors in the wilderness. Enjoys flying, even if it reminds him a bit of his uncomfortable history. Being around civilized people, as it makes it easier for him to think clearly. Dislikes ULIEL. He deeply resents the prince of madness for tricking him, and is driven to get revenge somehow. He also hates the people who experimented on him. His mother, and all the other people who made his previous life miserable. He has suffered nothing but abuse at the hands of other demons, and is at best, slow to trust them. Although he prefers to spend time around other civilized people, as it makes it easier for him to think clearly, he doesn’t trust himself around them and tends to act rather reclusive and shy. What he’s done and specifically what he’s eaten as a wild raven. Strengths Can transform back and forth between his humanoid form and his bird form at will, as long as he’s well-rested and fairly calm. Can fly in both forms and has minor demonic corporis powers in his humanoid form, including night vision and fairly weak telekinesis. His hearing, sight, and sense of smell are all heightened, especially in his bird form. Sharp teeth, horns, and claws in his demon form, and a sharp beak and talons in his bird form. Although he finds it thoroughly disgusting, he can eat and survive on just about anything a normal raven could, in addition to his usual diet, including scavenged berries and fruit, small prey, and carrion. He can talk in his bird form, but not much more so than a regular -if particularly intelligent- raven, often repeating simple words or phrases back to the people who said them. He also finds it easier to remain civilized when around other people, especially if they’re primarily calm and rational themselves. Weaknesses Despite his claws and teeth in one form and beak and talons in the other, he’s not especially good at fighting with either, especially while calm and ‘civilized’. His mind is rather fragile, and it doesn’t take that much stress for him to revert to the state of mind of a wild raven, completely forgetting who and what he is. However, through practice, he’s managed to shorten the amount of time he usually ‘goes feral’ for, and has gotten it down to a couple hours at the very worst. [li] Although it’s easier to think clearly and retain his old personality for longer periods of time in his humanoid form, it takes much more energy than his bird form, and he has to change back every few hours. In his raven form, although he can remember who he is, his memories and personality can sometimes quickly become more ‘simplified’, especially if he’s over-exerted emotionally or physically, or is forced into taking his bird form through exhausting his abilities. This also has made him forgetful and easily distracted, even in humanoid form. He can go feral in either form, but it is easier in his humanoid form if he’s angered or exhausted. However, he has more brain power available for fighting it in this form whereas as a bird it becomes harder to resist. Although he can fly in both forms, his humanoid form is noticeably slower and less graceful, although he’s physically stronger. His depth perception isn’t the best, because he’s missing his right eye, having had it torn out in a fight with some animal he doesn’t remember. Family Mother: Cer (Corporis demon) (possibly deceased) Father: an unknown corporis demon (possibly deceased) Siblings: None Other: Royce Howard (grandfather, deceased), Judith Howard (grandmother, deceased) History Royce Howard was a piously religious, Angellic Corporis human who fell deeply in love with a woman from Ciras. After they were married, his wife fell gravely ill and when she didn’t respond to medicine, he turned to prayer and summoning, but no mentis angel would heal her, given her heritage as a demonic corporis worshipper. In desperation, he summoned Prince Uliel, hoping to make a contract. Uliel was surprisingly amicable, agreeing to heal Judith in return for a price he’d think of sometime in the future. Royce accepted and Uliel made good on his promise; Judith woke up the next morning in perfect health. A few years later, they had a daughter, but found that Uliel hadn’t forgotten Royce’s debt; she had been born with the wings, horns, sharp teeth, and fiery temper of a demon. A corporis demon, specifically, as part of a separate arrangement Uliel had made with Arzita. Devoutly Angelic as he was, this was something Royce could not accept and although he refused to leave his family, he began to resent and then hate his daughter, along with his wife, who, coming from a demonic province, was fine to raise and care for her, demon or not. Since he had been raised with Angelic Corporis values- one of which was to remain faithful to his family no matter what- he slowly began to sink into depression, and then madness; he slowly lost control of his temper and impulses. He gambled away the family’s savings and left his work at a neighbour’s farm. When he began to hallucinate and speak primarily in nonsense, Uliel’s true price had been paid; he had been driven mad. Eventually, he abandoned his faith and consequently, values, and walked out on his wife and daughter. After this, his now ex-wife fell ill again, and died quickly this time. Their daughter was just old enough to care for herself by this time and left the human realm altogether, moving to Arzita’s domain in the demonic realm and re-naming herself ‘Cer’, a demonic word, usually used as a slur and roughly translating to ‘orphan’. She lived as her parents had never allowed her to, rising up in demonic society quickly, but eventually accidentally winding up pregnant. Although she herself was a full, rather powerful demon, because her parents were both human, her son Berthold was born weaker than other demonic children and a bit sickly. He didn’t develop magic powers until late enough in life that he had given up hoping he ever would, and even then wasn’t especially strong. And though he had wings and despite his mother’s attempts to teach him, he was never able to fly, either. His mother also resented him a bit, and was never particularly loving towards him. Eventually, Cer gave up trying to raise him herself and sent him to the only boarding school in Arzita’s domain; the training facility for the corporis army. Here, he was relentlessly bullied and abused by both his peers and teachers, and although he did eventually manage to graduate, he did so several years late. On the evening of his graduation, a banquet was held, to which Cer had agreed to come. Berthold hadn’t seen her since she had sent him away, and was excited enough to reunite that he dressed as nicely as he could. However, when she arrived, she didn’t seem to have missed him nearly as much as he had her, and upon discovering he was still scrawny, could barely fight and still couldn’t fly, she immediately launched into a barrage of verbal abuse and stormed out. Berthold, disappointed and hurt, fled the banquet and wandered as far as away as he could get, eventually crossing the border into Uliel’s territory without realising it. Uliel had been keeping tabs on Berthold’s family since the contract he had made with his grandfather, and noticed almost immediately when Berthold entered his domain. He met him personally, cornering him in the deepest part of the woods. Berthold recognized him immediately as the Mentis Prince and tried to flee, but he was exhausted from running as far as he had, and eventually gave in to listening to him. They talked for a while, and Uliel managed to convince Berthold that he wasn’t as bad as he was made out to be, gaining his trust enough that Berthold explained to him the whole story of what had happened. Uliel offered to make a contract with him, and because he had shown Berthold some amount of kindness, practically the first he had received in his life, Berthold agreed. He asked to, if nothing else, be able to fly. In exchange, Uliel told him he’d need to do a quick favour for a friend of his. Berthold eagerly agreed and signed the contract. He was almost immediately whisked back to Uliel’s palace, and then through a portal into an entire other dimension. He doesn’t remember much of what happened next aside from pain. Eventually, he blacked out altogether, and when he woke up, he was back in his home dimension, albeit in the human realm, and in the body of a raven. He didn’t understand much, but he did know that he had been tricked. A deep hatred for Uliel took shape inside of him, along with those who had made his life as miserable as it had been, including his mother. He remained in the human realm, mostly in the woods between Ciras and Astylian, fuming with rage but unable to do anything about it, trapped as he was in the body of a bird. Eventually, this anger began to cause his memories, personality, and mind to slip away. It took several years, but eventually, he had become entirely feral and was nothing more than an ordinary –if immortal- raven. It took almost a century for it to occur, but eventually, the effects of the experiments done on him began to wear off, along with Uliel’s curse, which had relied on some of the modifications made to him to stay effective. His mind began to return to him and eventually, some version of his former powers. Gradually, he began to focus his energy on regaining his old body. The process was slow. At first he could only do little things- change the joints in his knees to be more humanoid, change his beak into something resembling a nose- and it was frequently put on pause as he found that whenever he exerted too much energy, whether on transformations or on daily life as a raven, he would revert back to being a wild animal, and it would take several days for his composure to return. Eventually, though, it has reached the point where he can now shape-shift between his bird form and something resembling his former self- partially feathered, and missing an eye from a fight he doesn’t remember- but it’s still difficult. He can’t stay in his humanoid form for very long, and it’s easy to cause him to go feral again, if for much shorter periods of time. Still, he doesn’t trust himself much around civilized people, and there have been reports within towns in and around the woods of a feathery demon feeding on carrion and screeching at anyone who gets too close.